Department for External Church Relations
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Procession with the cross in Kiev has shown: Ukrainian Orthodox Church is the largest confession in Ukraine
July the 28th marked the Day of the Baptism of Rus’. On the eve of the feast, about 350 thousand faithful of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church walked in a procession with the cross along Kiev’s streets from the Vladimir Hill with its monument to Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles who baptized Rus’ to the Kiev-Pechersk Laura.
Speaking about this event on the air of the Church and the World program, Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, noted, “They walked to the walls of the Kiev-Pechersk Laura to attest to their faith, their will for unity. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church remains as before the largest confession in Ukraine and the procession with the cross once again has vividly shown it”.
He reminded the viewers that the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church was subjected to undeserved verbal attacks, oppression and persecutions for her desire to preserve unity with the Russian Orthodox Church. “This unity has historical roots and is determined by our common faith, our common history”, he stressed, stating that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is self-governed and independent administratively and financially and she chooses her Primate and hierarchs on her own, without any negotiations with Moscow. “The only thing she preserves is the historical relationship with the center in Moscow, the liturgical mention of the Patriarch and the blessing of the chosen Primate as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia”, he said.
His Eminence also stressed, “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, her entire episcopate, clergy and church people are united by their desire to preserve relations with the Russian Church - all this was vividly shown by the procession with the cross that took place in Kiev”.
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